Six years ago on the morning of Shabbat Tazria-Metzora my wife and I were blessed with the birth of our oldest child. This week's D'var Torah is in her honor.
In the beginning of this week's parasha we are commanded to circumcise every male when he reaches eight days old. Medically speaking, the foreskin serves no beneficial purpose whatsoever. In actuality, leaving the foreskin on can make a child more susceptible to infection. With that said, I am left with two questions:
1 - If the foreskin is unnecessary (potentially detrimental) and Hashem was going to command us to cut it off, why not save everyone the headache (and cost of making a bris) by simply not creating us with it?
2 - Why the juxtaposition of Bris Milah in the midst of two parashiot that deal with purity and impurity?
As those who know me can confirm, I have a temper. When I asked my students this morning if the appropriate response to my temper would be to live with it or overcome it, they chose the latter. I then challenged them with the following argument "if Hashem created me with this temper, He obviously wants me to have it - why do I need to overcome it?" - they could not answer.
The answer to my question, is the answer to the parasha! Hashem created us with a physical imperfection, a flaw - the foreskin. He then commanded us to cut it off. The reason He did this rather than simply not creating it was to teach us a lesson that just as He created us with physical flaws that we need to remove, so too He created us with character flaws that we need to remove - one should not simply claim "if this is how Hashem created me, it must be how He wants me to be."
Regarding the juxtaposition of Bris Milah in Tazria-Metzora, the answer is very similar. At first, I couldn't understand why Hashem would place such a holy commandment among discussion of such impurity - until I started thinking about the purity! Hashem teaches us in these parashiot that if a person sees a blemish on himself, he should not simply ignore it - rather, he should go to the Kohen and ask how to overcome it. The same is true again for our flaws!
May Hashem bless us all with the siyata d'shemaya to recognize our flaws and the strength to overcome them. In doing so, may we see the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash speedily in our days.
Shabbat Shalom!
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